WHAT A TRIP:Yesterday’s announcement of a merger between Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference was just the latest stumbling block for the future of the Big East as a major football league, but remaining members such as Rutgers (above, Scarlet Knights receiver Mohamed Sanu takes a hit from Pitt’s Jarred Holley) still could solidify their ranks with a round of additions. (AP)

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The Big East Football Conference appears on course to remain intact by doling out invitations to six new potential members in spite of yesterday’s shocking announcement that Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference have agreed on a blockbuster football alliance.

Though the advent of a new league with up to 22 teams seemed to threaten the Big East’s precious automatic qualifier (AQ) status in the Bowl Championship Series, the Big East might survive one more time.

A highly placed source last night told The Post that despite the announcement, Boise State of the current Mountain West and Central Florida of Conference USA have received two of the six invites.

Air Force of the Mountain West, and Navy, an independent, are “fully engaged,” but wanted to make certain new exit penalties were in place, as reported exclusively in Friday’s Post.

“This is all still very fluid,” the source said. “This merger doesn’t restrict any of those schools from moving tomorrow if they want. No one knows what’s going to happen with Missouri. What if the Big 12 decides to go East or North?”

A conference call yesterday involving a school that does not have FBS football and two or three that do paved the way for the invites. But the madness might not fully shake out for another month or two, said another source.

The two leagues made the announcement yesterday evening, catching administrators throughout the Big East unaware. Nevertheless, the merger is not officially finalized, and at the very least the Big East will retain its AQ status through 2013.

“I don’t know what’s left of the Big East right now,” Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said on a teleconference call yesterday evening. “I know that we’ll have 22 [schools] at least and they’re at six. I don’t wish ill on anybody. I just know that we’re going to have a strong grouping here.”

The six remaining football members of the Big East are Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia. The NCAA mandates that a league consists of a minimum of eight members, though there is a two-year grace period if membership slips below eight.

That grace period is of no help to the league, which must have its membership solidified by next September, when its TV rights go up for grabs. The league was hoping to stave off extinction after Pittsburgh and Syracuse left for the ACC and TCU left for the Big 12.

The Big East left a lucrative TV deal on the table several months ago. That decision seemed like a major blunder when Pitt and Syracuse defected. But a highly placed source in college media said the Big East still could land a better deal if it solidifies.

The Big East schools that do not play FBS football — DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova — have little empathy left for their football brethren.

“There are so many moving parts in this, it’s hard to predict what will happen,” one Post source said. “If the football schools get boxed out, that becomes their problem, not ours.”

As reported in Friday’s Post, after two days of bitter debate that nearly the split the league along football-basketball lines, cooler heads prevailed on Thursday when an increased exit fee from $5 million to $10 million was agreed upon for FBS schools. But the time spent getting the league back on track may have distracted members at a crucial juncture for realignment.